-Insects do not have lungs! They breath passively through their “Spiracles” (openings in the side of their cuticle). Oxygen is delivered directly via trachea (series of smaller and smaller pipes) to the tissues that need it

-Since diffusion of gases is only effective over small distances, insects are relatively small

-Many insects have the nose on their antennas and the ears on their legs

-They can communicate in the infra- and ultrasound spectra

-Some can send out light

-Largest insect: Acteon Beetle from South America, males can become 9 cm or longer in length, 5 cm long and 4 cm thick; some beetles can become as long as 16 cm

-Heaviest insect: gravid female Deinacrida heteracantha can weigh as much as 70 grams

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Fun Facts Bees:

-Bees fly an average of 13-15 mph

-Honeybees visit about 2 million flowers to make one pound of honey and fly fifty-five thousand miles

-During honey production periods, a bee's life span is about 6 weeks

-Honey bees are the only insects that produce food for humans

-One single bee usually visits between 50-1000 flowers a day, but can visit up to several thousand

Fun Facts Ants:

-Very social animals living in colonies with a minimum of about 50 individuals

-Supercolony of Formica yessensis was found to have had more 1,080,000 queens and 306,000 workers in 45,000 interconnected nests

-10% of animal biomass of the world is ants and 10% is made up of termites: social insects make up about 20% of the total animal biomass of this planet

Fossil Findings:

-Insects of enormous size have been found from the Paleozoic Era (542-251 million years ago) such as dragonflies with wingspans of 55-70 cm

-Most diverse insect groups probably coevolved with flowering plants

Reasons for their success:

-incredible mixture of flexibility and strength of the integument (hard exoskeleton): allows insects their freedom of movement without loss of defence and protection. It is made up of three parts, the most visible of which is the outer 'cuticle' and its attendant bristles and hairs, below this are the 'epidermis' and the 'basement membrane'